Out of competition

Opening film

The third collaboration between Allen, MediaPro and Gravier Productions is a French-flavoured romantic comedy about a couple visiting Paris, starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates and Adrien Brody. Imagina has sold widely, including to SPC for the US, Mars Films for France, Concorde for Germany, Medusa for Italy and Alta Films for Spain. Allen has never had a film in Competition at Cannes but is a Croisette favourite, with You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger world-premiering out of competition last year.

In Competition

Sleeping Beauty (Aus)

Dir: Julia Leigh

Sydney-based novelist-turned-film-maker Leigh lands a Competition slot with her debut feature (the script made it onto Hollywood’s Black List in 2008). This erotic fairy tale stars Emily Browning, whose credits include Sucker Punch, as a student drawn into a world where old men seek erotic experiences while she sleeps in a beauty chamber. Cannes regular Jane Campion mentored Leigh on the production and is ‘presenting’ the film for release. Paramount/Transmission is distributing in Australia.

This adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s bestselling and award-winning book marks Scottish auteur Ramsay’s first feature since 2002’s Morvern Callar (which screened in Directors’ Fortnight) and is the only UK film in Official Selection. Tilda Swinton plays the mother of a teenage boy (Ezra Miller) who commits a surprising violent act; she and her husband (John C Reilly) have to tackle their feelings of grief and responsibility. Backers include BBC Films and the UK Film Council. Producers are Luc Roeg for Independent with Jennifer Fox and Robert Salerno.

The Tree Of Life (US)

Dir: Terrence Malick

This much-anticipated new film from Malick has been linked to several film festivals, but finally gets a Cannes slot. The beautiful, though cryptic, trailer points to a complex and philosophical 1950s-set drama centring around a family with three boys, with a cast including Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain. Malick won the best director prize in 1979 for Days Of Heaven, and while never prolific he has a status with critics as a masterly film-maker. Summit is handling foreign sales on behalf of River Road, and Fox Searchlight will release in the US.

This new film from the Italian director has recently opened in his home country, winning plaudits for its sumptuous cinematography and grossing $4.4m from two weeks on release. The director (and co-scriptwriter) plays a major role as a therapist to an insecure new pope, played by Michel Piccoli. At $11.9m (€8m), it is Moretti’s most expensive film to date. He won the Palme d’Or in 2001 for The Son’s Room.

Int’l sales: Fandango Portobello Sales

Contact: www.fandangoportobello.com

Hanezu no tsuki (Jap)

Dir: Naomi Kawase

Kawase’s third film in Cannes Competition is based on a novel by Masako Bando, set in the Asuka region where Japanese culture first emerged. A contemporary drama, it looks at humanity against the broad sweep of time from ancient civilisation to the present day. Kawase was previously in Competition with Sharasojyu in 2003 and The Mourning Forest, a contemplation on death and nature which was the surprise winner of the Grand Prix in 2007.

Drive (US)

Dir: Nicolas Winding Refn

The Competition is set for an octane boost from Refn’s $30m action thriller Drive. Produced by OddLot Entertainment and Bold Films, it was one of 2010’s hottest market films, and is the first time in the festival for Refn, best known for the Pusher trilogy and Bronson. Based on a novel by James Sallis and adapted by Hossein Amini, the story follows a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver. Ryan Gosling stars with Carey Mulligan and Christina Hendricks. Producer Marc Platt has likened it to The French Connection. FilmDistrict will release in the US in the autumn.

The Danish director makes his 11th appearance in Cannes with this “beautiful movie about the end of the world,” starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan and Alexander Skarsgard, Kiefer Sutherland and John Hurt. Trier’s past Cannes award winners include 1996’s Grand Prix winner Breaking The Waves, his 2000 Palme d’Or winner Dancer In The Dark and 2009’s controversial Antichrist. The $10m English-language Melancholia was produced by Meta Louise Foldager and Louise Vesth for Zentropa. TrustNordisk has pre-sold the film to more than 25 territories including North America (Magnolia), UK (Artificial Eye) and France (Les Films du Losange).

Mihaileanu follows up his French hit The Concert with this comedy drama set in a Moroccan village where the women threaten to withhold sex from their partners if they do not fetch water from a far-away well. Produced by Elzévir Films and Oi Oi Oi Productions, the cast includes Leila Bekhti, Hafsia Herzi and Hiam Abbass.

Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai (Jap)

Dir: Takashi Miike

Following his success with last year’s Venice competition title 13 Assassins, Miike returns to the samurai genre with this remake of Masaki Kobayashi’s classic, Harakiri, which scooped the Special Jury Prize in 1963. It is also the first 3D film in Cannes Competition. As with 13 Assassins, Hara-Kiri is produced by the UK’s Jeremy Thomas and Japan’s Toshiaki Nakazawa.

Loosely based on Thierry Jonquet’s novel Mygale, Almodovar’s latest tells the story of an eminent plastic surgeon who becomes obsessed with creating new skin. The horror-thriller reunites the Spanish auteur with his Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down star, Antonio Banderas. Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes and Fernando Cayo co-star. Almodovar won the best director prize at Cannes in 1999 for All About My Mother and best screenplay in 2006 for Volver. The Skin I Live In is his first film to screen at the festival before opening in Spain (Warner Bros Spain will open it in September). Sony Pictures Classics has US rights.

Int’l sales: FilmNation

Contact: www.wearefilmnation.com

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (Turk-Bos)

Dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Ceylan’s fourth film to premiere in Competition at Cannes follows a doctor, played by Turkish writer, film-maker and actor Yilmaz Erdogan, working on the desolate Anatolian steppes. The film is produced by three Turkish companies — Ceylan’s NBC Film, Zeyno Film and Imaj Entertainment — along with Sarajevo-based production house 2006. Ceylan’s previous Cannes wins include the Grand Prix for Distant in 2003, the Fipresci prize for Climates in 2006 and best director for 2008’s Three Monkeys.

Int’l sales: Zeynofilm

Contact: www.zeynofilm.com

Michael (Aust-Fr)

Dir: Markus Schleinzer

First-time film-maker Schleinzer makes the jump from casting director — he cast fellow countryman Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner The White Ribbon — to writer-director with this feature about the problematic relationship between a 10-year-old boy and 35-year-old man. It is the only German-language title in the Competition.

The previous film from Kaurismaki, Lights In The Dusk, screened in Competition at Cannes in 2006. The Finnish director returns to the section with this tale of a shoeshine who becomes involved with a refugee child. Set and shot in the titular French port town, Le Havre is the director’s second French-language film after 1992’s La Vie De Boheme, and stars André Wilms and Kati Outinen. It was produced by Kaurismaki’s Sputnik alongside Pyramide International and Pandora Film Produktion.

Sean Penn stars as a former rock star in retirement in Dublin who hunts down the Nazi responsible for his father’s execution in Sorrentino’s fifth feature and English-language debut. It is a match made in Cannes heaven as Penn and Sorrentino first met when Penn presided over the jury which awarded Sorrentino’s Il Divo the Grand Jury Prize in 2008. No stranger to the Competition since screening his second feature, The Consequences Of Love, there in 2004, the director has been back with every film since.

Returning to the Croisette for a second crack at the Palme d’Or following Tiresia in 2003, Bonello explores life in a Paris brothel at the beginning of the 20th century. The predominantly female cast is led by Noémie Lvovsky and Hafsia Herzi, who won a César for most promising actress for her performance in The Secret Of The Grain in 2008 (Herzi also appears in The Source). Long-time collaborator Kristina Larsen’s Les Films du Lendemain produced the film with Bonello’s production house My New Picture.

Experimental film-maker Cavalier, who turns 80 this year, continues to push boundaries with his latest work, featuring himself and actor Vincent Lindon in a series of vignettes, mixing fiction and reality and revolving around the theme of the return of the prodigal son. The film was shot over a year and without a crew. Cavalier won the Grand Jury Prize for Thérese in 1986. He returned in Un Certain Regard in 2005 with Le Filmeur. Michel Seydoux’s Camera One has produced Pater with backing from Arte Cinema France.

The third film from Maiwenn Le Besco — or simply Maiwenn as she prefers to be known — Poliss revolves around a child protection brigade, mixing the dramas of troubled youngsters with the everyday lives of the officers responsible for keeping them safe. Former child actress and ex-wife of Luc Besson, Maiwenn branched into film-making in 2006 with the much-praised Pardonnez-Moi. While her previous two films played with reality and fiction, Poliss is her first conventional drama. Produced by Les Productions du Trésor, the film is scheduled for an October release in France.

Int’l sales: Wild Bunch

Contact: www.wildbunch.biz

Footnote (Is)

Dir: Joseph Cedar

Veteran theatre actor Shlomo Bar-Aba and Lior Ashkenazi star in this drama about an ambitious young academic and his publicity-shy professor father and the simmering rivalry which threatens to boil over when they learn one of them is to win a prestigious prize. Cedar’s Beaufort won the best director prize at the Berlinale in 2007 and was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar.

Cannes perennials the Dardenne brothers are back in Competition for the fifth time with this hotly tipped drama about the relationship between a boy frantically searching for the father who abandoned him, and the young woman into whose arms he literally falls. Cecile de France and Thomas Doret star in the film which could become the Dardennes’ third Palme d’Or winner following Rosetta (1999) and The Child (2005). Diaphana will release in France.

A long-time fan of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Hazanavicius’ intriguing new film The Artist is a black-and-white silent feature set against the backdrop of 1920s Hollywood. It follows a big, silent screen star and young unknown extra, whose fortunes are reversed by the rise of the talking film. The feature reunites Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, who starred in Hazanavicius’ previous film OSS 117:Lost In Rio, alongside John Goodman and James Cromwell. Thomas Langmann’s La Petite Reine produced.

Int’l sales: Wild Bunch

Contact: www.wildbunch.biz

Un Certain Regard

Opening film

Restless (US)

Dir: Gus Van Sant

Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper (son of Dennis) star as off-beat teenagers who have to confront death. Cannes regular Van Sant won the Palme d’Or with Elephant in 2003, the 60th anniversary award for Paranoid Park in 2007 and was in Competition with Last Days in 2005. To Die For screened out of competition in 1995. Written by Jason Lew, Sony Pictures Classics plans an autumn launch in the US.

Worldwide dist: Sony Pictures Int’l

Contact: (1) 310 244 2073

Tatsumi (Sing)

Dir: Eric Khoo

Khoo’s animated feature is a tribute to Japanese manga legend Yoshihiro Tatsumi and is based on the artist’s hand-drawn autobiography, A Drifting Life, which has recently been published in French. The film brings to life Tatsumi’s experiences growing up in post-Second World War Japan and five of his poignant stories in the drawing style which Tatsumi pioneered. Khoo was last at Cannes with 2008 Competition entry My Magic.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (US)

Dir: Sean Durkin

This directorial debut follows the difficult journey of a young woman re-adjusting to society after escaping an abusive cult. Produced by New York-based Borderline Films, which includes writer-director Durkin and producers Josh Mond and Antonio Campos, the dramatic thriller stars impressive newcomer Elizabeth Olsen. Fox Searchlight took worldwide rights after the film’s world premiere in competition at Sundance.

Skoonheid (S Afr-Fr)

Dir: Oliver Hermanus

The director wrote Skoonheid while attending Cannes’ Cinéfondation in Paris. Produced by Swift Productions and Moonlighting Films, it tells the story of a dejected family man (Deon Lotz) whose mundane routine unravels after a chance encounter. The first Afrikaans-language feature to screen at Cannes, Skoonheid is also the first South Africa-France co-production to emerge from a treaty signed by the two countries at last year’s festival.

Oslo, August 31st (Nor)

Dir: Joachim Trier

Norwegian director Trier drew much praise and many festival awards with his 2006 debut feature Reprise, and now makes his Cannes debut with this film inspired by the cult novel Le Feu Follet by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. Trier adapted the screenplay with his Reprise co-writer Eskil Vogt. The film is about 24 hours in the life of a man (Anders Danielsen Lie) who leaves drug rehab and goes home to Oslo. Sandrew Metronome will release in Norway in August.

Bonsai (Chile-Arg-Port)

Dir: Cristian Jimenez

This second film from Chilean director Jimenez won the top prize at the Films in Progress Latin American screenings in Toulouse in March (Jimenez’s first feature, Optical Illusions, premiered at San Sebastian in 2009). Bonsai is an adaptation of Alejandro Zambra’s novella about a love affair between two literature students, and stars newcomers Diego Noguera and Natalia Galgani. Jimenez developed the project as part of the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence, together with Zambra, who co-wrote the script.

Hard Labour (Trabalhar Cansa) (Bra)

Dirs: Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra

This debut from Brazilian film-makers Rojas and Dutra centres around a middle-aged housewife who opens a grocery store and its effect on her family. Gilda Nomacce, Helena Albergaria and Marat Descartes star. The directors’ short film A Stem won the Kodak award at Cannes in 2007.

The Day He Arrives (S Kor)

Dir: Hong Sang-soo

After winning the top prize in Un Certain Regard last year with HaHaHa, Hong returns with another tale of heavy-drinking, skirt-chasing film-makers, this time filmed in black-and-white. The story follows a former director who travels to Seoul to meet with an old college friend and runs into a succession of characters. As with Hong’s previous films, his latest work is likely to feature a heavy quotient of dark humour.

The story of a happy family whose life is turned upside down when the father is diagnosed with a brain tumour. Dresen’s films, all festival favourites, include Whisky With Vodka, Cloud 9 (which screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2008), Summer In Berlin, Grill Point and Night Shapes. Stopped On Track is produced by Rommel Film and stars Milan Peschel and Steffi Kühnert.

ARirang (S Kor)

Dir: Kim Ki-duk

The first docudrama from Kim, Arirang is a monologue about the director’s experiences and film-making, and how he conveys life through his films. Kim also acts in the film. The title is taken from the name of Korea’s most famous folk song. Kim was last at Cannes with Breath, starring Chang Chen, which played in Competition in 2007.

Hors Satan (Bel-Fr)

Dir: Bruno Dumont

Belgian writer-director Dumont’s sixth film Hors Satan (which was shot with the title L’Empire) stars Aurore Broutin in the story of how a miracle reveals the unseen side of a village loner. Dumont has won the Grand Jury Prize twice: for L’Humanité in 1999 and for Flanders in 2006.

Int’l sales: Pyramide

Contact: www.pyramidefilms.com

Loverboy (Rom-Fr)

Dir: Catalin Mitulescu

Based on a screenplay previously titled A Heart-Shaped Balloon, Loverboy is about a young man, played by George Pistereanu, who seduces women and passes them on to a human-trafficking network. The film was one of Cannes’ Atelier de la Cinéfondation projects in 2007. Mitulescu, whose previous film was 2006’s How I Celebrated The End Of The World, won a Palme d’Or for best short film in 2004 for Traffic.

The French director returns to his native Marseilles, backdrop for Marius And Jeannette and Marie-Jo And Her Two Loves, of which the latter screened in Competition at Cannes in 2002. Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Pierre Darroussin star as a couple whose happiness is shattered when they are subjected to a brutal attack by two masked men. The film was produced by Agat Films & Cie/Ex Nihilo, the collective production house set up by Guédiguian.

Schoeller was last in Cannes in 2008 with his directorial debut Versailles. This new film is about a bus crash which kickstarts unexpected political events. Belgium’s Olivier Gourmet, who won the best actor prize at Cannes in 2002 for the Dardenne brothers’ The Son, and Michel Blanc star.

A group of women from both sides of the Christian/Muslim divide try to ease religious tensions in their small village in Lebanon. Like Labaki’s popular debut feature film Caramel, which screened in Directors’ Fortnight in 2007, the film stars the director alongside a mainly female, amateur cast. It is produced by Anne-Dominique Toussaint’s Les Films des Tournelles, which also made Caramel.

Yellow Sea (S Kor)

Dir: Na Hong-jin

Na’s second feature, following his acclaimed debut, The Chaser, is a more complex story about a man who agrees to carry out a hit in Seoul in order to pay off his gambling debts. The film opened in Korea last December to warm reviews, especially for the two leads Ha Jung-woo and Kim Yoon-suk, but a lower-than-expected box office. Its length was cited as a problem and a shorter 140-minute cut is screening at Cannes. Fox invested in the film and will distribute in North America.

Int’l sales: Showbox

Contact: www.showbox.co.kr/english

The Hunter (Rus)

Dir: Bakur Bakuradze

Georgian-born Bakuradze is one of the CIS’s most exciting up-and-coming film-makers. His debut film, Shultes, screened in Directors’ Fortnight in 2008, while this new film The Hunter, was selected in project-form at both Rotterdam’s CineMart and Berlin’s Co-Production Market in 2009. It is the story of the relationship between a lonesome farmer and a woman from a prison colony. It is produced by Sergei Selyanov of CTB Film Company and Bakuradze’s Salvador D outfit.

Int’l sales: CTB Film Company

Contact: ref.ctb.ru/en

Miss Bala (Mex)

Dir: Gerardo Naranjo

The latest feature from film critic-turned-international festival darling Naranjo is set in the violent world of Mexico’s warring drug gangs, told through the eyes of an aspiring beauty queen. Stephanie Sigman, Noe Hernandez and James Russo star in the film which is produced by Canana (the production company run by Pablo Cruz, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna) with backing from Fox International Productions, which will release in Mexico in September. Naranjo’s Drama/Mex screened in Critics’ Week in 2006.

Int’l sales: Fox International Productions

Contact: Shebnem Askin-Schreger, (1) 310 369 2776

Toomelah (Aus)

Dir: Ivan Sen

This is the second fictional film by indigenous Australian film-maker Sen, whose debut feature Beneath Clouds screened in competition at Berlin in 2002. Toomelah is set in the real-life community of the same name (the home town of Sen’s mother) and is the story of a Aboriginal boy who falls in with a group of drug-taking teenagers. Sen, who has made a number of documentaries, shot with a non-professional local cast and crew. Screen Australia and Screen NSW financed the film which is produced by Sen and David Jowsey under their Bunya Productions banner.

Closing film

Elena (Russia)

Dir: Andrey Zvyagintsev

The director of Venice winner The Return and 2007 Cannes Competitor The Banishment returns with this third feature, about an elderly couple. When her wealthy husband has a heart attack, Elena sees a way to help her struggling alcoholic son.

Int’l sales: Pyramide, vtruelle@pyramidefilms.com

Out of competition

One of the most eagerly awaited releases of the year in France, where it opens on May 18, The Conquest is a behind-the-scenes political drama depicting the lead-up to Nicolas Sarkozy’s ascension to power in 2007. Durringer teamed up with award-winning screenwriter Patrick Rotman, and Hippolyte Girardot stars.

Int’l sales: Gaumont

Contact: www.gaumont.net

Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (US)

Dir: Rob Marshall

The Black Pearl drops anchor in Cannes for this fourth instalment of the Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer franchise. The film is set to have its world premiere at Disneyland before heading to Cannes, and opens day-and-date worldwide between May 18 and 20.

Worldwide dist: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International

The Beaver (US)

Dir: Jodie Foster

This drama is based on a Black List screenplay by Kyle Killen and premiered at SXSW earlier this year to solid reviews. Mel Gibson plays a corporate chief who suffers a mid-life crisis and learns to communicate with his family (including wife Foster) through a beaver hand puppet. Summit is releasing in the US.

Int’l sales: Summit Entertainment

Contact: www.summit-ent.com

Bollywood — The Greatest Love Story Ever Told (Ind)

Dirs: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Jeffrey Zimbalist

Produced by Shekhar Kapur and co-directed by Delhi 6’s Mehra and documentarian Zimbalist, this musical documentary is about the global phenomenon that is Hindi-language cinema. It is born out of a conversation between Kapur and Thierry Frémaux who spoke of his desire to find a Bollywood film he could programme in Official Selection. Cannes regular Aishwarya Rai is won of the many Bollywood figures featured.

Int’l sales: UTV

Contact: www.utvgroup.com

Wu Xia (HK-Chi)

Dir: Peter Ho-sun Chan

The only Chinese-language film in Official Selection this year, Chan’s $20m martial-arts drama has been pre-selling steadily due to its attractive package of director and cast. Action dynamo Donnie Yen plays a notorious martial-arts expert who tries to leave his past behind but is hunted by a ruthless detective, played by Takeshi Kaneshiro. Chan, who directed The Warlords and produced Teddy Chen’s award-winning Bodyguards And Assassins, is likely to imbue eye-popping action with realism and strong dramatic content.

Writer-director Gout’s intriguing feature debut is a thriller set in Mexico City exploring three separate kidnappings from three points of view during three football World Cup Finals in 2002, 2006 and 2010. The cast is headed by Tenoch Huerta, Kristian Ferrer, Dolores Heredia and Carlos Bardem.

Closing film

It is difficult to think of a more fitting film with which to close the festival than Honoré’s lavish musical drama which stars a dazzling array of French talent headed by Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni, Milos Forman, Louis Garrel, Michel Delpech and Paul Schneider. The story is drawn from Prague of the 1960s, London of the 1980s, the world of September 11 and contemporary Paris. Honoré was first in Cannes’ Competition with the musical romance Love Songs (Les Chansons D’Amour) in 2007. The Beloved is produced by Why Not Productions and Le Pacte will release in France. The songs are all by Alex Beaupain, Honoré’s longtime friend and composer of the music for all his films.

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